page_title: Macaroni penguin
section_title: Life history
hierarchical_section_title: Macaroni penguin / Life history
caption_attribution_description: English: Macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus), Cooper Bay, South Georgia
context_page_description: The macaroni penguin is a species of penguin found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. One of six species of crested penguin, it is very closely related to the royal penguin, and some authorities consider the two to be a single species. It bears a distinctive yellow crest, and the face and upperparts are black and sharply delineated from the white underparts. Adults weigh on average 5.5 kg and are 70 cm in length. The male and female are similar in appearance; the male is slightly larger and stronger with a relatively larger bill. Like all penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine lifestyle.
  Its diet consists of a variety of crustaceans, mainly krill, as well as small fish and cephalopods; the species consumes more marine life annually than any other species of seabird. These birds moult once a year, spending about three to four weeks ashore, before returning to the sea. Numbering up to 100,000 individuals, the breeding colonies of the macaroni penguin are among the largest and densest of all penguin species.
context_section_description: Like most other penguin species, the macaroni penguin is a social animal in its nesting and its foraging behaviour; its breeding colonies are among the largest and most densely populated. Scientist Charles Andre Bost found that macaroni penguins nesting at Kerguelen dispersed eastwards over an area exceeding 3×10⁶ km². Fitted with geolocation sensors, the 12 penguins studied travelled over 10,000 km (6,200 mi) during the six- to seven-month study period and spent their time largely within a zone 47–49°S and 70–110°E in the central Indian Ocean, not coming ashore once. This area, known as the Polar Frontal Zone, was notable for the absence of krill.
  Living in colonies results in a high level of social interaction between birds, which has led to a large repertoire of visual, as well as vocal, displays. These behaviours peak early in the breeding period, and colonies particularly quieten when the male macaroni penguins are at sea. Agonistic displays are those which are intended to confront or drive off or, alternatively, appease and avoid conflict with other individuals. Macaroni penguins, particularly those on adjacent nests, may engage in 'bill-jousting'; birds lock bills and wrestle, each trying to unseat the other, as well as batter with flippers and peck or strike its opponent's nape. Submissive displays include the 'slender walk', where birds move through the colony with feathers flattened, flippers moved to the front of the body, and head and neck hunched, and general hunching of head and neck when incubating or standing at the nest.
caption: An individual porpoising in Cooper Bay
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